An exciting new rumor has surfaced that suggests the next-gen Nvidia RTX 4090 graphics card could be very powerful, and that could cause AMD big trouble.
A few days ago, a reliable leaker reported that the AD102 chip, which is supposed to power the top-end Nvidia RTX 4090, should prove "easy to hit 2.8GHz, at least not terribly difficult." That's exciting enough as the base clock of the RTX 3090 hits a respectable 1,7 GHz. Thus, the RTX 4090 already seems much faster than its predecessor.
However, the sponsor, kopite7kimi, who has a strong track record of accurate leaks, has now returned to the topic, tweeting that "I have to say we can expect much higher frequency."
I must say that we can expect a much higher frequency. June 30, 2022
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As HardwareTimes reports (opens in a new tab), this suggests that the RTX 4090's boost clock, which kicks in when playing graphics-heavy games, could break the 3GHz barrier, and liquid-cooled custom models could go even further.
This potentially means that the RTX 4090 could be an absolute beast when it comes to performance and could crush the competition from AMD. AMD is also set to release next-gen graphics cards later this year, and the company has always struggled to match the raw firepower of Nvidia's high-end gaming GPUs.
If this rumor is true, then AMD will have a real fight to fight, and it's a fight we don't think we can win. However, it would be a huge blow to AMD if Nvidia came back with the most powerful gaming GPU of the generation.
While that might mean the next-gen GPU wars are over before they've even started, an RTX 4090 with those kinds of speeds would come at a hefty price tag, and we're not just talking in the financial sense.
Review: Will the Nvidia RTX 4090 thrill be worth it?
If this new rumor is about the money, it looks like the RTX 4090 could be a big step up from the RTX 3090. While both are likely to have the same memory (24GB GDDR6X), the big clock speed difference could be seen. (per HardwareTimes calculations), the RTX 4090 offers a staggering 100 teraflops of power, a huge boost from the RTX 37,6's 3090 TF rating.
So expect the RTX 4090 to be expensive. Very expensive. But, as we mentioned earlier, there will be other costs. Despite being built on TSMC's most efficient 5nm process node, the RTX 4090 is said to need 600W to run. That's a lot, as the already power-hungry RTX 3090 has a TGP of 350W. If true, that means many people may need to invest in a more powerful power supply for their PC, which can be an expensive and time-consuming upgrade.
These types of energy demands could also affect running costs, especially at a time when many people are seeing their energy bills rise.
A GPU that consumes that kind of power will also need a heavy cooling solution to keep it from overheating. This may again lead to a great three-slot design, like the RTX 3090, and even advanced liquid cooling solutions for any model that wants to hit the kind of high clock speeds these rumors promise.
All of this leads to a GPU that could potentially be very powerful and certainly impressive, but which again might be out of reach for most gamers. This will make some people hard to get excited about, even if it ends up being one of the best graphics cards ever made.